Public concerns over hospital services threat must be heard

IF, AS I suspect, you have been following the so-called 'public consultation' regarding the future of Macclesfield General Hospital please read these extracts taken from minutes of the public meeting held at Wilmslow Leisure Centre on September 8, 2005.

IF, AS I suspect, you have been following the so-called 'public consultation' regarding the future of Macclesfield General Hospital please read these extracts taken from minutes of the public meeting held at Wilmslow Leisure Centre on September 8, 2005.

Question: There are two 'hot potatoes', which are going to come up and those are maternity services and the Accident and Emergency Department at Macclesfield. Can you work with local people to ensure these services stay in Macclesfield?

Answer: Acting chief executive of the East Cheshire Primary Care Trust Gary Raphael: "We are trying our utmost to come up with a model in Macclesfield, which maintains services and if it is not possible to do that in every case, we will explain why. I am not going to pretend that there won't be changes."

Q: Could the public not change that? If the population of Macclesfield and Wilmslow say they prefer to keep these services and sacrifice others - will that sway you or is it down to economics?

A: Gary Raphael: "This is not just about hospital services - it is about a whole plethora of services. The views of the public are important. We have to be clear about what we can achieve."

Comment: You can understand that not to have an Accident and Emergency Department and maternity services in Macclesfield would be a real concern for local people.

A: Gary Raphael: "Absolutely, yes. We will look at what changes people don't want to see made.

"We are trying to encourage the views of local people on general principles, like these, and the preferences they are expressing.

"We are collating everyone's views and looking at what is most important to them in Eastern Cheshire."

Just what is there to collate? An idiot in a hurry could see residents do not want to lose their maternity or A&E facilities. If, as Mr Raphael claims, this is a 'public consultation' why is he afraid to say these departments will remain open if that is what the public want?

I recently attended a meeting to test public opinion on late night trading at a large shopping centre.

Asked the question 'if the vast majority of shoppers are in favour, will we have late night trading?', the chairman answered, 'It will commence immediately', and it did.

So what's Mr Raphael's problem? He claims to be seeking public opinion and the question is simple enough.

Of course, we have been down this route before with the police. You probably recall your village bobby living in a local police house. Everyone knew his name and he knew them.

Until, that is, he was swept away in some theoretical 'improvement' to services.

The 'local' bobby was then expected to work out of a central police station and cover several villages.

Later he disappeared from his rural beat to police larger towns. Then beat bobbies went out of fashion altogether and were rarely to be seen anywhere leading to the lamentable policing we have today.

To dress up these changes police forces held a never ending round of 'Police Forums' where senior officers ignored the anger of local residents and trotted out a list of meaningless statistics in support of their anonymous policing methods.

After two decades of public frustration, senior officers now agree they were wrong and community policing is back on the agenda.

Finally, they ARE listening but the public have suffered 20 years of inept, indifferent policing during which theory and ideology became more important than public service.

Now, we are told, despite massive increases in NHS funding and the explosion in labour saving technology, Macclesfield may lose vital hospital departments that have served the community for decades. So what exactly is going on here?

Public services have ways of swallowing up increases in funding without producing any tangible benefits but in this case East Cheshire Hospital Trust aren't just failing to show improvements; they actually want to cut services.

We should have learned from our policing experience. If we allow this to happen we will face decades of disaster before they finally admit they got it wrong (again).

If you care about your hospital, I suggest you attend every public meeting and let Gary Raphael know exactly how you feel.

Then check the published minutes and see if they reflect a true picture of events.

Never let it be said the public were 'indifferent'. If Mr Raphael plans to close down these departments whatever the public say then let's hear him say so and not hide behind meaningless buzzwords and devious management speak.

Either this is genuine public consultation or it isn't?

Go to those public meetings and find out for yourself.

THE views expressed on this page are those of Vic Barlow and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Express.